ICRC News 31 / 09-Aug-01


** SHORT MENU....
Liberia: Women: prime victims of armed conflict

Korto (41), Gladys (35) and Martha (48) are living in Liberia. They've
never met. But they all have something in common. Lives scorched by the
cruelty of war. Loneliness, helplessness, poverty and the ever-present
hostility of those around them.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: ICRC BRINGS FOOD TO CIVILIANS IN
LIPKOVO

This week the ICRC delivered much-needed food aid to civilians in the
village of Lipkovo who have been in a precarious situation for many weeks
now since being cut off from their regular supply lines.

Bosnia-Herzegovina:  Srebrenica victims - Photo book campaign leads to
encouraging results

It has been nearly three months since the ICRC published its second "Book
of Belongings" containing photographs of possessions found with the mortal
remains of people who went missing during the fall of Srebrenica.


** STORIES IN FULL...

Liberia
Women: prime victims of armed conflict

Korto (41), Gladys (35) and Martha (48) are living in Liberia. They've
never met. But they all have something in common. Lives scorched by the
cruelty of war. Loneliness, helplessness, poverty and the ever-present
hostility of those around them. As if the others could no longer stand the
sight of suffering.

When fighting broke out in Lofa County at the beginning of the year, Korto
left in a hurry. Crossing the Saint Paul River into the next county, she
got separated from her two children, her sister and her brother. Until
she'd done all she could to find them, she didn't want to carry on with
the rest of the group. But she was alone in the forest, it was dark and
she kept going round in circles. Eventually she abandoned the search and
headed south towards the capital, Monrovia. A family have taken her in for
the time being, and she's eking out a living selling scraps of charcoal.

Life has been little kinder to Gladys. Back in 1991, she and her father
fled the war in Sierra Leone, but when they crossed the border into
Liberia they found themselves in the midst of another war. The journey was
hard. Gladys was raped. In 1994, she reached the Samukai refugee camp on
the outskirts of Monrovia, but her father died on the road. She left his
body in a ditch. No funeral, no grave. Today, Gladys has two children and
the family are all in one camp, in a little mud-brick house with a piece
of plastic sheeting for a roof. She spends her days selling things from
her stall.

The light has gone out in Martha's eyes. As if she were waiting for the
relief only death brings. She is not old, but you wouldn't know it. Her
home is a corner of a run-down building in Monrovia, shared with others
left to fend for themselves. Her body has been weakened by lack of health
care, food and basic comforts. She relies on the unpredictable generosity
of a little boy for what little food and water she gets. Martha no longer
has the strength to move, and all her family died or disappeared in the
war. Here, family are a woman's only pension plan. Martha lost hers. Now
she is at the mercy of others.

But the future is not entirely bleak.

The ICRC got Korto to the "TV Tower" camp for displaced persons, near
Liberia's second city, Gbanga. And there she found Suah, her elder sister.
Red Cross volunteers are still looking for the rest of her family. With
luck, they may be among the 30,000 people in the region's other six camps.

In 1999, the ICRC encouraged journalist Bettina Ruhl to produce a series
of reports in Liberia. One of the people she interviewed was Gladys. Her
story struck a chord with a German pastor and he organized a collection
for her. As a result, money is waiting for Gladys in a Freetown bank
account. As soon as the border reopens, she will abandon her refugee
status, return to her country and set up home, with a little nest-egg to
ensure her independence.

Once a week, Liberian Red Cross volunteers visit Sinkor, an abandoned part
of Monrovia where Martha is trying to survive. They bring forty or so of
the poorest and most vulnerable people from the area to a room near where
she lives. Martha comes too, in a wheelchair. The volunteers give everyone
a hot meal, a bottle of mineral water, a T-shirt and a bar of soap. A few
words of encouragement and compassion from the President of the Liberian
Red Cross, Haja Taylor, make this particular day a little less grim than
the ones before it. Afterwards, Martha will have to wait several days
before receiving further assistance from the Red Cross. According to the
National Society, in Monrovia alone there are over 200,000 people with no
resources and no one to help them.

Video material broadcast via the EBU on 13 Agust at 12 hrs GMT and other
main satelite feeds at 14h30 GMT.
Photos available from AFP, AP and Reuters .

Further information: Roland Sidler, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 (22) 730 2045


Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
ICRC BRINGS FOOD TO CIVILIANS IN LIPKOVO

This week the ICRC delivered much-needed food aid to civilians in the
village of Lipkovo who have been in a precarious situation for many weeks
now since being cut off from their regular supply lines.

Four trucks carrying wheat flour, baby parcels, candles and family parcels
containing additional food and basic emergency supplies arrived in the
village Tuesday morning after the ICRC received security guarantees from
both sides. During the same visit, the team evacuated 16 vulnerable people
who were to be reunited with their families in Kumanovo.

While the ICRC had visited Lipkovo on a number of occasions since the
outbreak of fighting in the Kumanovo region to deliver medical supplies to
the clinics and evacuate people, it had not previously received direct
requests to bring food to the area. During recent visits, however, local
representatives of the civilian population, who estimate that between
10,000 and 15,000 people could still be in Lipkovo, asked the ICRC for
help after warning that their food stocks were running dangerously low.

The ICRC remains concerned about the plight of residents of other villages
which are similarly cut off. A trip is planned this week to the village of
Sipkovica, in the hills above Tetovo, where civilians have been isolated
for months now. The ICRC also plans to bring food assistance to Vratnica,
in the Tetovo area, where supplies are reportedly having difficulty
getting through following recent clashes in the area.

Further information: Amanda Williamson, ICRC Skopje, tel. ++ 389 2 371 951
or ++ 389 70 340 492


Bosnia-Herzegovina
Srebrenica victims - Photo book campaign leads to encouraging results

It has been nearly three months since the ICRC published its second "Book
of Belongings" containing photographs of possessions found with the mortal
remains of people who went missing during the fall of Srebrenica.

The "photo book", as it is known, comprises 2,702 pictures of clothes,
shoes, jewellery and other personal effects found with 473 exhumed bodies.
It was published last May as part of the ICRC's efforts to elucidate the
fate of more than 7,500 people, mostly men and boys, who disappeared when
the town was overrun in July 1995. At the same time, a campaign was
launched in which the book was presented to relatives of missing persons
by specially trained teams comprising personnel from the Red Cross Society
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives from the associations of
families of missing persons. In all, 2,522 people who were searching for
4,488 missing persons consulted the book, and items found with 67 bodies
were tentatively recognized. Forensic experts from the Podrinje
Identification Project in Tuzla, which is part of the Missing Persons
Institute, are now engaged in the arduous task of identification.

Since it is very distressing for the families of missing persons to look
for clues to the fate of their loved ones, the teams who showed the book
to the relatives provided counselling and support. "When they consult the
book they often talk about the difficulties they are facing in their
everyday lives," said Sahar Hasan Staehelin, ICRC psycho-social delegate
in Sarajevo, who trained the teams.

Copies of the book will remain permanently available for consultation in
18 local Red Cross offices and in the ICRC offices in Tuzla, Zenica and
Sarajevo. A similar ICRC photo book relating to persons who went missing
in the Republika Srpska is currently being produced in Banja Luka.

The efforts made to identify the mortal remains exhumed so far are of
great importance to the relatives of people who have remained unaccounted
for since the end of the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, they do
not dispense with the need for the relevant government authorities to
fulfil their responsibility under the Dayton Peace Agreement to provide
the ICRC's tracing services with information on missing persons so that it
can be forwarded to the families.

Further information: Jessica Barry, ICRC Sarajevo, tel. ++ 387 33 652 407

During the weekend of 11 - 12 August 2001, for all information please call
the press officer on duty Macarena Aguilar, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 64